Delhi Police to set up new control room for ‘112’ emergency helpline

The 112 emergency helpline will be the go-to solution for availing all kinds of emergency services like fire control and ambulances.

Delhi Police is in the process of setting up a separate control room for handling calls on phone number 112, which will be India’s equivalent of 911 of the USA’s all-in-one emergency services. Sources said top Delhi Police officials are looking at logistical requirements for the new helpline and a place where the control room can be set up.

“The police control room is located at the police headquarters in ITO area but meetings are currently being held to see where the new control room can be built. The new control room will be coming up somewhere at Haiderpur,” said a senior police officer.

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The 112 emergency helpline will be the go-to solution for availing all kinds of emergency services like fire control and ambulances. “All the calls that are coming to 100 will be coming on 112 also. The only difference will be that our personnel will also be attending to calls about fires and ambulances. Two sister services will be added. We currently have 50 lines. We are preparing for it since we will be needing more personnel and lines,” another officer said.

“From November 30, we will be linking the Centralised Ambulance Trauma Services (CATS) helpline to 100. We are developing a control room in Haiderpur that will be taking calls made to 112, but since there are directions that it should be rolled out soon, we will take the load on our existing phonelines from the last week of November,” he added.

In many cases, ambulances and police services are required. In those circumstances, we will initiate police proceedings as well as transfer the calls to CATS helpline, he said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs is monitoring the implementation of the proposed service and every state has been given necessary funds. Sources said Delhi has received Rs 12 crore for rolling out 112 emergency helpline.

Delhi Police will soon be inviting tenders for buying hardware required, sources said. Officers involved in the execution of the project said they are anticipating hoax calls to go up after the new emergency number comes into existence.

“We get Rs 26,000-27,000 calls everyday. In the normal process, we also get fire calls and even calls for ambulances. We are not expecting our load to increase. However, blank calls might go up,” he said.

Out of the 27,000 calls that the PCR unit handles daily, almost 40 per cent are blank calls. “There are close to 11,000 blank calls or repeat calls. Many people have second thoughts about calling the police and even after dialling they disconnect the calls. Many times they make multiple calls for one issue. So we are anticipating a rise in those kind of calls,” he said.